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Don’t we all love explorations of the mysterious, of the uncertain of nature? It’s theundeniable mark of the human being: wonder and fear. Last year, I really enjoyed reading speeches, pamphlets full of dreams and power. But then, drifting away from the raising political USA I found the more romantic, folkloric USA, the one we learn the least about. And I am here to talk about Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, and Edgar Allan Poe. I’ll be honest: I’ll say nothing new about Poe.

With no doubt, Irving caught me with three stories. I am very sure you’ve heard of the Sleepy Hollow, perhaps Rip Van Wrinkle and The Devil and Tom Walker, the first two of which are adaptations of German folk tales to his immediate context, New York (wait! did you know he popularized the word “Gotham” to refer to New York, and that’s the origin of the name of the city in Batman?!). What I like the most about his writing is that even though he might seem to go into psychological characters, he doesn’t. He doesn’t try to reveal ONE character, but rather aspects of humans in general through one character. The Devil and Tom Walker, a story where a man encounters a devil in the swamps of Manhattan, talks about the guile for power and goods. Sell your soul to the devil has never been old, and will never get old.

The Devil and Tom Walker by John Quidor

Now, Willian Cullen Bryant marks the beginning of Romantic poetry in the US, moved by what he considered the connection between the self and the universe, a source of poetry directly linked to God that was part of everything. It is all about the power of human imagination to unveil mysteries of nature. Here are some verses of Thanatopsis that reflect on death:

Thine individual being, shalt thou go/ To mix forever with the elements/ To be a brother to the insensible rock/ And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain/ Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak/shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.

Last but not least, Poe.The horror, the wit, the transformation of natural phenomenons into supernatural ones…!Story after story, poem after poem. No questioning his mastery and his legacy. I read him until I got sick of him: after a while, his techniques get repetitive, but that doesn’t take any of his credits away. The one shocking thing is that sometimes he seemed too self-indulgent. Example: in Descent into the Maelstrom, the main character, a fisher with little or no academic background comes up with mathematicky terms right in the middle of the whirlpool. He justified it saying some scholar had taught him the words. Poe knew that vocabulary wasn’t realistic, but his smart, intellectual buttocks couldn’t avoid pouring all that geometry and logical thinking into the story. He just couldn’t. But that’s alright, he’s that awesome. If you haven’t read The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Raven, The Bells, and some others, your life isn’t complete. You think it is, but it really isn’t. You can find the ebooks online for no cost, they are public property!

I’d better stop this because I have accumulated about eight more authors… See you soon!!!

When I completed my basic readings of the Revolutionary Period (1760-1800) of American Literature earlier this year, I ended up with this in my head: politics, ideals, and the so-wished by so-few, whipping mother-of-all value called discipline. Among all the pamphlets and ideals and bustling desires of dignity, Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography struck me the most.

Before I explain this well, I have much and many to mention. First, Patrick Henry’s speech at the Virginia Convention, a perfect example of persuasive, blunt discourse:

Give me liberty or give me death!

My heart shrank in a single pulse when I read, from The Crisis by Thomas Paine, the words below, probably because I feel it can be said about our times:

These are the times that try men’s souls . . . What we obtain too cheap, we steem too lightly

I felt passion under Jefferson’s words on the Declaration of Independence, the beginning of the American identity forming in the Letters from an American Farmer by Michael-Guillaume Jean de Crévecoeur and in the verses of Phillis Wheatley, the widely applauded female African-American poet of the 18th century.

But I am here to talk briefly about Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States -therefore a politician-, philosopher, writer, musician, scientist/inventor and many other occupations, titles and professions I purposedly omit.

He had bad education, was raised in poverty. If young Benjamin Franklin lived today and were in literary workshops, he would probably be the type I dislike: the person who doesn’t stop mockery and stamps on all sorts of diplomacy. His attitude gained him job blockage, due to which he fled to New York. His journey there depended on fate and on mercy of others.

So how does a miserable imp become an extraordinary historical figure, a successful newspaper editor, founder of the University of Pennsylvania (which is currently in the top 20 universities of the world), founder of the American Society of Philosophy, a unique catalyzer of technology (it’s just so much, Google it, please)? First of all, he could get a job in NY and earned his bread. But that’s not all.

It’s outside the realms of my pretension to lay as statements of truth what I consider is good or bad or being a better person or a worse person or whatsoever. However, I do consider being a better person (in non-moral aspects of the term) involves setting goals related to discipline and prudence, and working on them without self-indulgence.

Franklin’s method -which I tried for two months- involved watching himself closely, daily, orderly, what he considered virtues: Temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, humility. He obliged himself to acquire the habit of those so-called virtues, one by one, for a period of time; he kept a calendar of his failures, and worked cycles after cycles on those habits.

Probably we wouldn’t consider those exact virtues in that exact order as priorital, but surely this is a top example of the power of discipline and self-development. So if you would like to know more, if you are one of those people interested in constant progress, read his Autobiography!

P.S.: I have already started “First Harvest (1800-1840)” and I am loving it! Will definitely write on it!!!

Many cultures have had religions and beliefs that feature human-like gods and goddesses, most of them being specifically male or female. However, for some, creation and fertility was not always a female feature, and many concepts of nature and the universe could only be explained from a dipole perspective. Sometimes, being intersex was a result of magical or mysterious events.

This list shows intersex deities from different mythologies, their significance and stories. The use of “she” or “he” goes in accordance with texts and legends, which often use the pronouns based on the predominant or more perceivable gender.

1. Hermaphroditus (Greek)

Hermaphroditus was an incredibly attractive man who was raised by nymphs. The myth tells that one day he totally undressed and jumped into a lake. There lived Salmacis, a nymph who had fallen in love with him, but who suffered after being blatantly friendzoned. When she saw him, she embraced him tightly and prayed to the gods that they become one eternally. From then on, every man who bathed in that lake became effeminate. Alternative stories say that he was “born that way.” As we might tell, this where the term “hermaphrodite” comes from, referring to organisms with both female and male reproductive organs.

2. Agdistis (Phrygian, Greek, Roman)

Yet another mind-blowing story originated because Zeus couldn’t keep it in his pants! As a result of him raping Great Mother (Gaia) while she slept on the rock Agdo, a creature was born with both female and male genitals. (S)he was named Agdistis. The gods were scared of this superhuman of double gender, and plotted to make Agdistis auto-castrate. Dionysus secretly tied Agdistis’ feet to his/her penis during sleep, so it would be pulled at the moment (s)he got up. Her blood fertilized the earth, and the penis became an almond tree. Sometime later, the daughter of the god Sangarius would get pregnant at the moment she put some almonds from that tree on her lap; and Agdistis would fall in love with her own son, Attis.

3. Hapi (Egyptian)

Hapi was the god of the Nile River. Although male, Hapi was related to fertility and to the ability to provide food to Egypt. He was considered responsible for the annual flooding of the Nile, which kept the lands from becoming a desert and made farming possible. Since fertility and nourishing were typical female traits, he presents physical features of both sexes: big breasts, a fake beard, a large belly, and aquatic plants on his head (!). Interestingly, there were two Hapi: one in upper Egypt and one in lower Egypt, and both of them had a wife… We can bet they were happy!

4. Ardhanarishvara (Hindu)

Literally named “the Lord who is half woman.” Ardhanarishvara is a god composed of half Shiva (god of destruction and regeneration) and the god Parvati (a form of Shakti, wife of Shiva). Other of Ardhanarishvara’s names mean “man-woman,” “mother-father,” and “the Lord whose half is the fair one.” It symbolizes the inseparability of female and male energies in the universe, the integrity of marital union, and the power of fertility of nature. Though there are several episodes in the Puranas about the origin of this form of Shiva, one stands out. In one instance, Lord Brahma created the universe and male humans, but needed to make human copulation possible. Soon Ardhanarishvara manifested, and Lord Brahma deemed “half and half” perfect.

5. Lan Caihe (China)

One of the Eight Immortals in Daoism, Lan Caihe was a human of unknown sex and unknown age. According to the legend, (s)he was an eccentric beggar and drunkard who gained immortality by an act of charity. (S)he is the patron saint of the poor, and is usually depicted wearing only one shoe, holding a flute, or carrying a basket of flowers, fruits or bamboo. Lan is portrayed either as a man, a woman, or an effeminate man. In Chinese theater, (s)he wears female clothes, but sounds like a male.

6. Ymir (Norse)

The tales of the Origin of the Cosmos of Norse mythology tell about the rising flames from Muspelheim that encountered the frost from Niflheim, creating a splatter of mass and energy in the abyss of Ginnungagap. As the ice melted, Ymir, a hermaphrodite, was born. Later, a cow named Auðumbla emerged from the drops, and fed him. The earth was created out of Ymir’s flesh and bones when he was killed by the god Odin: of his blood the sea/ of his bones the hills/ of his hair trees and plants/ of his skull the heaven… So says the Poetic Edda. It is thought that the name “Ymir” comes from the Norse “um,” which means “whole.”

7. Ometeotl (Aztec)

In Nahuatl, the language spoken by Aztecs in Mexico, “Ome” means “two,” and “teotl” means “cosmic energy.” Ometeotl was therefore considered the “Lord of Duality,” being simultaneously male (Ometecuhtli) and female (Omecihuatl), and also carrying light and darkness, order and chaos, nearness and closeness… This very first god represented the belief that the universe was formed by opposite poles. Constituting a two-in-one abstract god, “they” resided in the 13th heaven Omeyocan (meaning “Two Place”). There, four sons were born, each with qualities that complemented the others: Xipe Totec (east, red, dawn), Quetzalcoatl (west, white, sunset), Tezcatlipoca (north, black, midnight), and Huitzilopochtli (south, blue, noon).

8. Jehovah (Hermetic Kabbalah)

According to the Kabbalah, Adam was not a male, but both a male and a female. Instead of simply possessing organs of both sexes, he was vertically divided, one face forward, one face behind. This challenges the Christian story telling that Eve was made from one of Adam’s ribs: it is said that the Hebrew word tzela was misinterpreted as “rib,” but actually means “side,” and that after God created the so-called Primordial Adam, he cut his body in half. Let our imaginations handle that. Anyway, since Adam was made in resemblance of God, it is deduced that the latter is a hermaphrodite.

9. Phanes (Greek)

Before the world was created, there was an egg world. That egg world was becoming so full and there was so much friction inside of it, that eventually Kronos (god of time) and Ananke (god of inevitability) broke it. Phanes was born at that moment, and had two faces, two sexes, golden wings, bulls’ heads growing from the sides, and snakes embracing his body. This primal god represented the ability to reproduce, and was therefore the one to initiate life. Some say that Zeus ate him, incorporating into his body all powers, forms of nature and immortals that Phanes contained, which made it possible to bring them out at Mount Olympus.

10. Ahsonnutli (Navaho)

As the Navaho people migrated to find a habitable place, they got to this world, which was in complete darkness. They talked to Ahsonnutli, the “Turquoise Hermaphrodite” who lived in the Ure Mountains. Ahsonnutli was at the same time a male creator god; in consequence, it is thought that her sexual partner was, so to say, her other self. She carried turquoise beads in her left breast, and white beads in her right breast. After much struggle, with help from the carriers of the “Chanteen” (sun rays) and twelve men living at each of the cardinal points, she managed to make the sun rise. She then appointed the forty-eight men to stay at the cardinal points and hold the heavens up.

The reasons why Latin American governments should encourage the use and development of free software and document conform a multitude. Their nature go from moral and education to economic savings. I speak from the situation of the Dominican Republic because (1) it is the one I know the best, and (2) though independent, it shares common traits with the rest of Latin countries.

The most basic of the aspects we need to fix is of a moral nature. One does not grow in the Dominican Republic with notions of copyrights, their terms and laws related to them. Since primary school, we copy-paste. Your teacher won’t tell you it is wrong to copy somebody else’s work and submit it as yours. Actually, that’s what they expect you to do. They won’t be categorical and tell you that you are stealing, and we need to fix this. We need to start teaching that we have to cite sources and use quotation marks or italics. We have to be informed about what is copyright and when it applies, what it means when we click on “I accept the terms…”. But equally importantly, we also should know that there are different licenses, that there are documents of the public domain that you can copy and print for personal use. Probably even mass distribute it. That many times all you have to do is attribute the work to the person who created it and then you are free to use it, modify it, and distribute your modified version. If you haven’t done it yet, read the terms of use of Wikipedia or check my licensesection. You can also check around the terms GPL and Creative Commons.

But really related to this, is education in the more academic sense of the word, so I will go back to that copy-paste case that starts in primary school and never really ends. A teacher is meant to stimulate the creation of knowledge, not to simply stand in front of a class distributing data and information. What does the term critical thinking mean to the majority of Dominican teachers and professors? I am not sure of that. But the fact that they don’t really work so students develop it tells me a lot. It would be great to have a teacher who helped you understand the answers of these questions when writing: What do you want to communicate? Why? Did you just invent it or found the information somewhere else? That somewhere, what somewhere is it and why should I trust it? Do you think it is possible to write about X without looking it up? How about you try it? And what I am trying to say, in case it is blurry, is that you can’t simply enhance the development of a thinker if (s)he doesn’t ever go through the process of pondering ideas, their nature, their origin, how they are presented and expressed, and what they cost to the one who does the latter.

All these things are important when the money factor walks into the room. And there is something I hope we all understand, judging from a case I will describe. Imagine an 18-year-old girl from a family with very limited resources, probably from a countryside, who starts college in Santo Domingo. Her mother works as a housekeeper and gets paid 110USD monthly. Luckily her father lives with them and makes a little bit of money here and there, and can make 300-400USD a month. She can’t work because classes are totally scattered along the days, plus she has no especial skills. Just basic meals for the three of them plus rent is about 450 dollars. Then there are all sorts of expenses. Can this college student spend 100USD on books? We know the answer is “no”. You might be thinking “yeah, but that is not necessarily the general case”. But if you really want to understand why I say it, you might want to Google the minimum wage in the Dominican Republic, the employment rate, the formal to informal employment ratio, the average income in metropolitan areas and in rural areas… and any other useful indicator. You will see how bad it is.

For educational purposes, many professors accept copied books and will even distribute them. The “lesser of the evils”, that is. “At least these kids are learning and will get a degree, they’ll have a better life and will produce money for themselves and the country”. Some others, teach the more traditional way where a student doesn’t have the opportunity to read abundant literature on the topic nor explore beyond the curriculum.

We must create free documents for education. Obviously we can’t write about highly-specialized topics if we don’t have the proper research and resources, but this can work really well for the more elemental and traversal areas: Spanish, math, history and others. And I believe it isn’t even a big investment if you compare it to the results.We are not going to start educating on copyright topics by simply saying “making copies of that book is illegal” and applying laws. We must provide an option. We need to start by providing materials in terms and prices that do not lead the average student to even consider the illegal possibilities.

I leave you with this, and I will keep writing more on this topic, on how hard it is and how long it can take to break certain illegal habits. And how free “whatever” manifest in other many other areas (not just education). See you soon!

Do you know why I love free software so much (and having such an amazing package manager as Synaptic)? Here is an example: I procrastinated writing this physics report so much, and started writing it at midnight. I felt like drawing the circuits. In about 7 minutes, it was solved:

I wrote “circuits” on the Synaptic search bar.

First option was “Oregano” and the description and screenshot were informative enough.

I installed it right away, only required about 1MB, USD0.0, no legal issues.

Using it is so intuitive, I feel like a dinosaur walking on earth in 2013. And I could just export it to PNG or PDF 🙂

I know this is really simple software and that there are many options out there… but I doubt you can solve your needs as easy.

Some of you might be wondering that. Last night I realized I needed to provide some background on this.

I fell in love with American Studies during my exchange year in Bozeman, partially because of the excitement and chillingness of my professor Dr. Sara Waller and the enthusiasm of my favorite corrector so far, Trudi Fisher, when it was time to work on my papers.

It was one of those Friday nights by myself early in January this year and I went to take a walk down El Conde. I stopped by a used books stand to “see if anything motivated me”. There were all sorts of books piled on the ground: universal literature classics, engineering textbooks, photography, plastic arts… all of them. And in one of those piles, with at least fifteen other imposing books on it, I read golden on ocean blue: “Adventures in American Literature”. It felt warm inside, the memories of books on counterculture and flashes of history from that class. I had to get it.

But since I don’t make that sort of decisions quickly, I sat to read under the faint lamp. I glanced through it out for hours, while random men kept stopping by to check other books or sit next to me and talk about life and studies and books and languages and travel. One of them used to study tourism and had hair people would admire back in “his days”. But then he went to Bávaro, met a German girl who drove him crazy and took him to Europe, and forgot about everything. And there he is, back in DR, no hair, no German. Another of them always wanted to learn English, but it was never possible. He would ask why I chose that book, why I studied why I studied, why I would read on a Friday night. The rest would just comment on different books. The rest, of course, is fiction.

I felt more certain about getting that book: “Adventures in American Literature” sounded fresh, fun, seductive. It was published by HBJ (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers) and written by a bunch of guys from everywhere: Francis Hodgins from Illinois, Kenneth Silverman from NY, Milton R. Stern from Connecticut, and Rolando, Hinojosa-Smith from Texas. The edition was very good and the index showed me exactly what I wanted: names, excerpts of texts and references on dozens of American writers, from the colonial time to what available to their date of publication in 1989.

So that’s the reason why I might seem to have suddenly changed: I have a super guide on American Literature I read really slowly. But I also stop for further reading whenever something entices me. It was the case of Sarah Kemble Knight (my favorite up to 1760). I know I will keep writing on my strongest impressions. I can’t restrain myself once that fever starts dragging me towards the blank page. So here is the announcement and warning: There will be English and American Literature… probably mainly.